outsourcing management of oracle erp applications to...
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Oracle
Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2011 Issue 2. Copyright © 2011 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2011 Issue 2. Copyright © 2011 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Organizations large and
small acquire enterprise
resource planning (ERP)
applications to help
enhance business performance, improve
operational efficiencies, and reduce costs.
Leading-edge Oracle ERP applications
offer a comprehensive range of solutions
through the Oracle E-Business Suite
and PeopleSoft Enterprise applications
from Oracle. Organizations worldwide
use Oracle applications to establish
effective transportation management,
project portfolio management, customer
relationship management (CRM), and
human capital management.
Oracle E-Business Suite provides a
comprehensive suite of integrated, global
business applications to help organizations
achieve an end-to-end view across all lines
of business. Decision makers gain consistent
financial and operational information
while employees can access relevant
information tailored to their roles. The Oracle
E-Business Suite offers an adaptable global
business platform that helps organizations
extend business processes to support a
global operation while helping to ensure
compliance with local regulations.
PeopleSoft Enterprise applications
from Oracle are designed to increase
productivity and accelerate business
performance. By providing advanced
engagement and collaboration tools,
PeopleSoft applications help keep an
organization’s workforce connected and
boost employee effectiveness. Because
PeopleSoft applications offer complete,
integrated solutions, they help speed up
end-to-end business processes while
helping reduce the need for excessive,
costly customizations.
Oracle and PeopleSoft applications
help organizations make intelligent
operating decisions, reduce costs, and
advance innovation. Yet for many IT groups,
managing these sophisticated applications
can become a complex undertaking.
74 2011 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions
Dell™ Application Management Outsourcing services help organizations capitalize on the
benefits of Oracle® E-Business Suite and PeopleSoft Enterprise applications from Oracle
without the cost and complexity of in-house management.
By Rose Manjarres and Thomas Kopec
Outsourcing management of Oracle ERP applications to enhance efficiency
dell.com/powersolutions | 2011 Issue 02 75
Oracle
Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2011 Issue 2. Copyright © 2011 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2011 Issue 2. Copyright © 2011 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Maintaining an IT staff with
sufficient application-specific
expertise, developing a set of
internal best practices, and
providing the support required
for sustaining performance and
availability can challenge IT
groups of any size. Organizations
need ways to reduce the
time and expense devoted to
management while still achieving
the application performance that
the business demands.
Dell Application Management
Outsourcing (AMO) for Oracle
E-Business Suite and PeopleSoft
Enterprise applications help
address these challenges. By
offering a comprehensive
collection of services, Dell
AMO enables organizations to
offload time-consuming and
resource-intensive administrative
tasks so in-house staff can stay
focused on core competencies.
Organizations have the flexibility
to select the services they
need and to tailor services
to their precise business and
technical requirements.
In addition to Oracle
E-Business Suite and PeopleSoft
Enterprise applications, Dell
AMO provides support for
Oracle Business Intelligence
Suite Enterprise Edition Plus,
Oracle Hyperion performance
management applications,
and the Oracle JD Edwards
EnterpriseOne application suite.
(For information on how Dell
AMO supports a PeopleSoft
environment, see the sidebar,
“Esurance: Streamlining
availability and support for a
PeopleSoft environment.”) In
addition, Dell AMO can support
ancillary applications to help
ensure that ERP environments
are managed effectively across
the organization. Using Dell
AMO, organizations can reap
the benefits of Oracle and
PeopleSoft ERP solutions
while enhancing IT efficiency.
(For information on how Dell
AMO helped enhance one
ERP deployment, see the
sidebar, “The Carlyle Group:
Accelerating enterprise
efficiency by outsourcing ERP.”)
Selecting from a full range
of outsourced services
While Dell Services helps
organizations design and deploy
Oracle solutions, Dell AMO offers
a comprehensive collection
of services for the ongoing
management, maintenance, and
support of those applications.
Infrastructure hosting and
network services
Organizations can decide to
have Dell host some or all
of their Oracle application
infrastructure and network
services in leading-edge, tier
4 Dell data centers. Using Dell
hosting helps eliminate the need
to acquire and maintain the
infrastructure in-house. Dell data
centers provide robust hardware
platforms, with a selection of
different configurations, to help
deliver exceptional performance
and reliability for running Oracle
applications. With extensive
backup, archiving, and disaster
recovery capabilities, the option
to host an infrastructure enables
organizations to protect enterprise
data, maintain compliance with
government regulations, and
sustain business continuity.
Esurance: Streamlining availability and support for a PeopleSoft environmentOnline auto insurance provider Esurance offers direct-to-
consumer personal car insurance in 30 states across America. The
company had outsourced management of its Oracle PeopleSoft
financial applications and Oracle Database software, but when
the external service provider announced that it was going out
of business, Esurance needed to make changes rapidly. The
company selected Perot Systems, now part of Dell Services, for
hosting plus functional and technical support.
The transition from the previous provider was completed
in just 60 days. Following the migration, the new team helped
Esurance apply maintenance packs and implement strategies to
keep the Oracle PeopleSoft environment current going forward.
Dell now hosts Oracle PeopleSoft and Oracle Database
software in a private cloud environment and provides functional
support, development assistance, DBA services, and administrative
support from the United States and India. Since moving to the new
managed services platform, Esurance has increased application
availability and improved support quality.
“ Dell AMO services provide the best
support we have experienced working
with a large ERP system, both
internally and externally supported.”— Heidi Suchard
Financial Reporting and Systems Manager at Esurance
November 2009
The Carlyle Group: Accelerating enterprise efficiency by outsourcing ERPWhen global alternative asset manager The Carlyle Group decided
to migrate to a new ERP application, company executives knew
they needed to outsource hosting and management to meet an
aggressive deployment timeline. After an extensive evaluation
process, The Carlyle Group selected Dell Application Management
Outsourcing (AMO) services to host and support its Oracle
PeopleSoft Enterprise applications and Oracle Hyperion performance
management applications.
The Carlyle Group completed deployment of ERP modules on
schedule. By providing hardware, data center hosting, IT services
management, and ERP application management, Dell Services helped
The Carlyle Group avoid the time and costs of building and managing
a large-scale application infrastructure internally. On an ongoing basis,
the Dell team helps to ensure excellent application performance for
worldwide end users by using a real-time performance measurement
tool. The team can quickly pinpoint potential performance problems
and work to address them.
“ Our collaboration with Dell Services
helps us maximize the benefit of
Oracle PeopleSoft in driving enterprise
efficiencies, mitigating risk, and helping
to reduce total cost of ownership.”— Dave Roth
CIO at The Carlyle Group
November 2010
76 2011 Issue 02 | dell.com/powersolutions
Oracle
Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2011 Issue 2. Copyright © 2011 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Data centers are staffed with administrators who understand
the complexities of ERP applications and can help sustain optimal
application performance. A network operations center staffed
24/7 helps to ensure that organizations have continuous access to
outsourced services around the clock.
Functional support
Dell AMO offers functional consultants with deep expertise in Oracle
applications to help business process owners configure applications,
facilitate integration among application modules, define business
requirements for new enhancements, and assist with quality
assurance. Acting as liaisons between business groups and technical
developers, functional consultants help provide business analysis
and assist with reports, interfaces, conversions, and enhancements
(RICE) development.
Technical support
Technical support includes break-fix services, application monitoring,
and a range of continuous application maintenance functions. Using
industry-standard or proprietary tools, the technical team provides
tailored application monitoring to identify potential problems before
they affect performance, helping to deliver a strong end-user
experience across a global workforce. In addition, the team provides
change management assistance, application cloning, and management
of application patches and updates.
Beyond core application support, the Dell team can support a
range of systems related to ERP and enterprise application functions.
For example, the Dell team can support electronic data interchange
(EDI), document management, fax, and engineering systems.
To help ensure that technical information and processes are
maintained even if personnel change, the technical support team
can build a customized knowledge portal that can be shared with
in-house staff. The Dell team can construct these portals quickly
by using templates and standards developed through numerous
previous engagements.
When technical resources are available, the technical support
team also can make minor enhancements in applications. For
example, the team can develop custom panels, queries, or reports to
help organizations keep pace with changing needs.
Database administration
Dell can provide full database administration support, assigning
database administrators (DBAs) with extensive Oracle application
expertise. DBAs assist with installing and configuring software, deploying
application servers, deploying quarterly security patches, implementing
automated monitoring, and managing backup and recovery functions.
They also can support Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) and
Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM).
dell.com/powersolutions | 2011 Issue 02 77Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, 2011 Issue 2. Copyright © 2011 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
All support service staff—including
network engineers, DBAs, and technical
developers—follow IT Infrastructure Library
(ITIL) best practices. By standardizing on
these common tools and processes, the
support teams can ensure consistency
across services and provide visibility
into emerging problems across support
groups. A network problem might
become a database problem, but with a
common process, the DBA can see all the
troubleshooting that has been attempted
before a problem appears in the database
support queue.
Help-desk support
The Dell global help desk can provide
a centralized resource for supporting
Oracle applications and managing
incidents. Multichannel support—
including Web, phone, e-mail, and chat
options—helps to enhance support
efficiency and control costs while giving
end users flexibility.
As with all technical services, the Dell
help desk can adhere to strict service-level
agreements (SLAs), creating new tickets
for high-priority problems within minutes
and facilitating problem resolution within
hours. The help-desk staff continually
assesses opportunities for improvement in
incident management and call resolution
through training programs as well as
updates to support tools.
Capitalizing on global delivery
In addition to offering a comprehensive
collection of services, Dell AMO provides
a global delivery model, extensive solution
flexibility, and deep Oracle expertise. The
global delivery model helps organizations
access the support they need wherever and
whenever they need it.
For functional services, Dell often
recommends using local, on-site resources
to foster continuing interactions and
knowledge transfers among in-house staff
and the Dell AMO team. For technical
support, development assistance, and help-
desk services, organizations can implement
a mix of nearshore and offshore support to
help achieve significant cost savings while
helping ensure the availability of support
resources for a global workforce, around the
clock (see Figure 1). Global delivery centers
in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, China,
and India all use the same ITIL-based delivery
platform, tools, process, and procedures to
help ensure consistency.
Dell AMO is designed to allow for
maximum flexibility. Organizations select the
services they need, modify services for their
particular requirements, and define SLAs to
meet their precise business requirements. When
organizations decide to supplement in-house
teams with Dell AMO services, in-house staff
members benefit from collaboration with
experienced personnel who have in-depth
expertise in ERP applications.
Dell and Oracle also have a strong,
long-term strategic relationship of nearly
20 years. Collaborative efforts in product
engineering and delivery plus extensive use
of Oracle applications within Dell IT have
provided a range of deep Oracle expertise
that Dell consultants can leverage for AMO
engagements. The Dell Services consulting
group from Perot Systems began its Oracle
applications consulting practice almost
15 years ago. The Dell AMO team draws
on this experience to provide today’s
services offerings.
Making the move to outsourced services
Oracle E-Business Suite and PeopleSoft ERP
applications can play a key role in helping
organizations achieve their business goals.
By outsourcing Oracle and PeopleSoft
management to Dell, organizations can
capitalize on the value of those applications
while avoiding the costs and complexity of
in-house management.
Figure 1. Delivering Dell AMO services to help organizations support a global workforce
Learn more
Oracle solutions at Dell:
dell.com/oracle
Dell Enterprise Resource Planning:
dell.com/erp
Oracle E-Business Suite:
oracle.com/us/products/applications/
ebusiness/index.html
PeopleSoft Enterprise applications:
oracle.com/us/peoplesoft/index.html
Authors
Rose Manjarres is a director at Dell. She is focused
on building and leading the Dell PeopleSoft
and Business Intelligence Global Applications
Management Outsourcing practice. Manjarres has
17 years of experience working at Dell.
Thomas Kopec is a senior technical account
manager at Oracle. As a member of the Oracle
and Dell Alliance team, he focuses on the technical
aspects of the resale relationship. Kopec has
14 years of experience working at Oracle.
Noida, India
Bangalore,India
Plano, Texas
Guadalajara,Mexico